The Sybaritism of the Vampire Diaries

Right, let's get down to this straight away. I watched the pilot for the Vampire Diaries several months ago now under a friend's insistence that my life would be incomplete without at least once having clapped eyes on the rather strikingly gorgeous form of Damon Salvatore. I suffered through what I considered a rather painful 35 minutes waiting for this new idol of hers to grace the screen in front me. When he did, while I was in accord with her assessment of his physical beauty, I was not taken with the character before me. Plus as I said I'd had to watch an assembly of rather unremarkable characters until that point.

The primary players of the Vampire Diaries, seemingly
far too angsty or ditzy or evil 

As a result of this I decided not to watch another episode. I happily told Scarlett that her love of Damon would always be her's and her's alone. After all, she's the one with the obsession with evil men, not me, I much prefer a Byronic hero, even anti-hero of same. I had no time to be wasting on a character who was purely good looking, while lacking any substance, I had more taste than that.  So with that I happily put Vampire Diaries into my pile of 'Hey at least I gave it a shot' and continued on with my life.

For reasons still slightly unbeknownst to me, one day, I decided that all I craved was the mindless enjoyment that only something, such as the Vampire Diaries could bring to me. I had resisted the call of same for the whole first season, but I was slightly curious. More so I was hoping for something as laughable as I found Twilight, though hopefully would be less painful to endure. So I sat down to the second episode and found that unlike the pilot, I was not forced to suffer the literal interpretation of 'Vampire Diaries' so much. The characters became slightly more dimensional than they had been, and straight away, having finished that episode I decided that I could endure another. That pattern continued for about a week, until I found at the end of it I had finished the complete first season. 

At this interval I'm inclined to bypass Scarlett's revelry that ensued upon the completion of same. Even more pronounced having found out, that at the end of it, Damon had slowly been transformed into something that I could appreciate. A Byronic (anti) hero. Sure, he killed people, and was generally a bit self centred, but he was a product of his circumstance. A strange amalgamation of Rochester and Heathcliffe (wailing about Katherine included). 

He is ridiculously hot, I'll admit it 

So it came down to the crux of all of this, why did I really enjoy this show so much? I mean I waited for the second season with baited breath. The premiere of which allowed me very little time to regain my senses. It wasn't until I was forced to explain this to Yomiko, another friend with whom I share a love of many literary works, that I fully understood my predilection for Vampire Diaries.

I mean I found Stefan too self righteous for my taste, Bonnie was too petulant after her return to the series, Caroline seemingly despite efforts to make her something more remained a ditz, and Jeremy was far too emo for anything other than the steps of Flinders Street station. The only two characters who I related to were Elena and Damon. Though with Elena I am quite certain that it was mainly due to the female solidarity and her protagonist placement in it all. 

So the question remained, why had I enjoyed it so much. The answer was simple. I loved the artistry of it, the visual spectacle was nothing other than amazing. I liked the fact that it was just scary enough without being too overt in its horrific nature. I began to enjoy the ensemble cast to a certain extent, each piece making for a much more substantial whole. I revelled in the storytelling which became more complex and extravagant as the series progressed. 

Most of all though, I fell in love with Damon's witty one liners.
'That's for me to know and you to dot..dot...dot...'

The supposed 'love triangle'...
Stefan, Elena and Damon